Huge £765m archaeological museum in Africa near pyramids to be the world's largest

By Max Parry, News Reporter

Construction work ongoing at the site of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza in 2018 (Image: Getty)

A vast and expensive museum has partly opened after a series of delays in Egypt, in view of the pyramids of Giza.

The Grand Egyptian Museum has cost more than £765m so far and it's not yet finished. However, it opened on Wednesday to 4000 visitors.

The museum is the world's largest archaeological musuem and holds more ancient Egypitan artefacts than anywhere else on earth.

The museum has taken more than a decade to construct and was delayed due to Covid, among other reasons.

The museum unveils a tapestry of ancient Egyptian history (Image: Getty)

There are 12 halls celebrating and chronicling ancient Egyptian society and culture and in total 15,000 artefacts will be on display.

There have been small tours taking place at the musuem since 2022, in order to test-run the experience and gather feedback.

Jorge Licano, a Costa Rican tourist, said, according to the Guardian: "There is a lot of history and a lot of things we are not aware of, especially coming from the other side of the world, and seeing everything here and learning from the locals has been great."

The pyramids are visible from the museum (Image: Getty)

Eissa Zidan, director-general of preliminary restoration and antiquities transfer at the museum, said: "The museum is not only a place to display antiquities, but it also aims to attract children to learn about ancient Egyptian history … The museum is a gift to all the world."

One of the halls will use virtual reality to explain burial throughout Ancient Egypt.